Biography: Competition

Heather Irvine is the head of the Norton Rose South Africa competition law team. She has been involved in some of the most high-profile competition law cases in South Africa since the Competition Act came into effect, including two recent applications to the Constitutional Court.

She specialises in cartel and abuse of dominance investigations and competition law opinions, particularly in the telecommunications, banking, information technology, petroleum, manufacturing and mining sectors.

Her experience with merger notifications in South Africa and various African jurisdictions is extensive. She is also regularly involved in designing and implementing competition law compliance programmes, as well as dealing with summons and dawn raid proceedings and corporate leniency applications. Heather is currently involved in complaints in the telecommunications, fertiliser, foam, milling, egg, tyre, plastic pipe and retail cycle industries.

Heather is highly recommended by various top international research publications, including Chambers Global and Best Lawyers. She is a regular conference speaker and contributor of articles on competition law and related issues to legal journals, including the South African Mercantile Law Journal, Without Prejudice and Contemporary Labour Law. She serves as the deputy chair of the International Bar Association's young lawyers committee. She is guest lecturer and external examiner for the University of the Witwatersrand's competition law undergraduate and Masters programme.

Heather served as a research assistant to Justice Albie Sachs at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa before her admission as an attorney. She supports a number of organisations dedicated to improving the legal protection afforded to animals in South Africa.